A man’s tornado experience led to key change principles.
In 1953, 18-year-old Joseph Jaworski found himself in the middle of a stage 5 tornado in Waco, Texas. His human GPS brought him to the center of the cyclone and connected him to five other people. This group worked as a team without speaking to each other. As if guided by an invisible hand, they worked to rescue 22 people buried in the rubble. He learned that groups can work as a unit, like flocks of birds, schools of fish and colonies of ants. He learned that he had the innate ability to get where he needed to be without knowing how he got there—human GPS. This experience provided Joseph with the foundation for the development of methods to help groups and organizations work synergistically. He found that athletes under major late-game pressure could see the details of what was about to happen on the football field or basketball court. That jazz musicians "knew" what the other musicians were about to do. Through a series of coincidences, Joseph discovered the sources of the entrepreneurial impulse:
Observe, observe, observe, develop an acute awareness of what is going on in the world;
Use your 6th sense for a deeper sense of knowing;
Learn to act in an instant.
Coincidences also helped him see that creativity involves:
Being open, having a sense of wonder, not being cynical about your own potentials and the intentions of others;
Understanding that we are all connected in various ways;
Learning to trust your own instincts to act with speed and prowess to opportunities that may not show up again.
To listen to Joseph tell these and other stories please click here.
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